SavaTheAggie

Full Gallery My entry into the Railyard Telegraph game - The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad flatcar #21158. Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad flatcar #21158 is a heavyweight flatcar built in 1909. In 1929 in Marble, Colorado, #21158 was used to haul the largest of the blocks of marble used to carve the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington DC. The raw, uncut block of marble weighed in at 55 tons, and was the largest single block of marble ever transported by rail. The marble block was then transported to Vermont where it would be then carved for the final tomb design. At some point, #21158 was purchased by the Galveston Railroad Museum. It has been used in the past as part of the museum's holiday festivities, carrying children and visitors as part of a hay ride train. Today the flatcar sits at the very edge of the Museum's property - alone. Few visitors ever walk that far out, as the paved sidwalk ends before you get there. Save for a small paper sign there is no indication of its significance to Railroad or American history. I feel a bit sad for the lonely flatcar, as I think its deserving of more attention than it attracts. Building the marble block was the most obvious load for this little flatcar, but a big white box is a bit boring. So I decided to go a little further - within the marble block is a MOC that unfolds into a micro scale version of Santa Fe Union Station, home to the Galveston Railroad museum on Galveston Island. Parked at the micro station is a pair of passenger trains pulled by two F7 units. One F7 is painted in the Texas Limited livery, representing the two F7 Texas Limited locomotives the real museum lost when Hurricane Ike rampaged over Galveston. The other F7 is painted in the Santa Fe Warbonnet livery which represents the pair of Warbonnets the museum recently acquired to replace the two lost Texas Limited F7s. In addition there are 20 1x4 tan plates which I included in case Matthew, the next in line for the Telegraph game, wanted to display the car with the boards installed on the sides. The Railyard Telegraph game requires a hobo as well - so I chose a hobo that represented my area. He's clad in gaudy beach wear and a long beard, ready to go fishing off the nearest pier. --Tony

I started following your progress when you started uploading photos on Brickshelf. You've done a great job on her. I can't say I agree with all the design choices you've made, but you've also built in some great features that I'm a bit envious of, like the angled firebox. Well done. --Tony

Do you have the motor hooked up to the IR receiver and the IR receiver to the battery, in that order? Have you verified the plugs are all firmly seated? (They sometimes need a little force on them) Have you verified the wheels are freely turning and are not rubbing on anything? The black switches above the remote dials reverse the signal polarity. Turning the dial right can make the train go forwards or backwards depending on signal polarity. --Tony

Early during Brickworld, but sadly not on video, we had my Allegheny pulling 28 cars. Not a record though, and we should have tried for one. My current record for the Allegheny is 32 cars, which stopped there not because of the locomotive but because of the tight LEGO curves - the cars were falling over from the lateral stress. With an all Grand Curve layout that issue would have been resolved, and we could have really tested her. Dangit. --Tony

A video made by Scott Miller of some of the trains running on the PennLUG/Texas Brick Railroad joint layout at Brickworld Chicago 2014. --Tony

Just because I've built something that some people say is good, doesn't mean it can't be improved upon, or that you shouldn't try building it yourself. Even if you don't feel it'll be as good, that's no reason to not try. Go for it, and I hope to see your finished result. --Tony

Thank you both. As built she's 1309 parts. She's ready for purchase in my BL shop whenever you two decide to pull the trigger. http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=AggieSava --Tony

Digital Daylight by SavaTheAggie, on Flickr Thanks to my efforts to create instructions for my model of the 4449, I was able to change a few things around from the original, including the inclusion of some new parts that LEGO has made in recent years that I didn't have access to previously. Her boiler has been made more robust, but more signifigant to some of you is that I was able to move the number plate forward. This is because of the new inverted 1x2 bracket. I'll have to take new photos of my version with the actual numbers on slopes, whereas here in the render the number plates are just tiles for ease of construction. Other minor changes include swapping 1x1 cheese slopes with 1x2 cheese slopes to smooth out her lines. This is most apparent on the cow catcher. I was also painfully reminded on just how complex and convoluted I was forced to build her. --Tony

Naming conventions aside, this is a very handsome engine. Well done. --Tony

Hah! That's awesome. --Tony

Thank you all. Obviously there's still much work to do, both in actual construction and overall design. Yes, I plan to build the tender with it's centipede wheels, though I haven't decided on a final design. The motors will be housed in the boiler, each pair will face each other with a vertical axle shaft between. I've designed the 7 wide boiler to have a 3 stud void in the middle specifically for the motors. The flanged and blind drivers in the render in my original post are actually reversed from where they will be in the final design. This will accomplish several things, not the least of which will be to improve how she articulates. Like my Allegheny, both sets of divers will be articulated to reduce overhang in curves, but unlike the Allegheny, the Yellowstone will not have a floating driver set. The switch in flanged drivers will also allow me to install a more robust anchor for the pony truck, which should accommodate double heading with less risk of breakage. I was originally going to use four of the new "L" motors because of their higher torque, but their increased battery drain and much higher price have lead me to decide to go with the M motors instead. I plan to use no gear reduction, which means she'll be capable of some impressive feats of speed along with a nice amount of power, but if I can fit a gear reduction in there I may just do so. We'll see. --Tony

Yellowstone_WiP_05 by SavaTheAggie, on Flickr This project has stalled a bit, partially due to other projects getting more attention from me, partially because of funding. I'm hoping by posting it hear I'll reignite the fire to get this thing finished. She's a model of the Duluth, Missabe, and Iron Range 2-8-8-4 Yellowstone Steam locomotives. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-8-8-4 She'll be powered by four M motors, my second attempt at trying to build a locomotive with powered drivers. The tender will hold the battery box, hopefully the AA version for longer run times, and quite possibly the IR receiver as well. I was going to put the receiver in the boiler, but there's just no real place to put it - no detail that looks like an IR receiver nub. Here is a mockup I built of the boiler design, for those interested: Yellowstone Boiler Mockup 2 by SavaTheAggie, on Flickr Originally I had hoped to have her built for Brickworld, but I don't see that happening now. A pity. --Tony

Lowering the pistons around a four wheeled pony truck is not impossible, but it is a bit of a holy grail among us steam builders. Few attempt it and fewer succeed, but I would encourage you to not simply abandon the idea completely. I've built several locomotives with varying styles of four wheeled pony trucks that successfully interact with inline pistons. None of my locomotives are ever finished, I'm frequently revisiting them to make improvements. --Tony

Everything is very well done, great details are everywhere. I love the SNOT tile sides of the cars, it really completes their look. The locomotive looks great, and as others have mentioned you've really staged the photographs well. --Tony

Man, all these very large, very ambitious steam projects. Very cool. :) I'm looking forward to seeing this take shape in real bricks. It looks like you've got a decent design all ready to go. I will be keeping an eye on your progeess. --Tony

I would suggest looking for some instructions online to see what others have done with regard to spacing and truck attachment. RAILBRICKS and Brickshelf are good resources for that.

This is a great, smooth build. I especially like the white rims on those wheels and the shape of the tender. My only complaint is the height of the pistons being so much higher than the drivers, the prototype photo shows them level with the axles. Their alternate color against the black accentuates it. Did you raise it up because of other locomotives you've seen, or to make the pilot clear the pistons in curves? --Tony

Fantastic work. You've done an excellent job capturing both her size and subtleties. I had once considered building this one myself, but I wasn't brave enough to try. Bravo! --Tony

I agree, the boxcars are great. --Tony

Thanks! Yup, its the same place. The Super Chiefs are a new addition, replacements for two similar engines destroyed in Hurricane Ike. They were going to repaint these to match the old ones, but decided to leave them as is (I'm glad they did). Additionally, the museum has three steam engines, one of which I've built. There are a few other cars they have I'm tempted to build, including a special flat car and a very posh observation/sleeper coach. --Tony

Santa Fe Union Station WiP #12 by SavaTheAggie, on Flickr For those interested, here is an updated render of the station, including a complete first floor, boiler room building, and station platforms. --Tony

And I thought I built big! Excellent work, there is done fantastic detail in there. ,--Tony

Scales change between countries, too. UK O scale is typically 1:43.5, with US O Scale being 1:48 (what I try to build to). I consider a train to be "X-wide" wherein "X" is the widest part of the body of train (cab, footplates, whatever). Smaller details such as handrails, hoses, even pistons do not dictate the MOC's classification. This is where I draw a distinction between "width" and "clearance". So, for me, at 1:48 US O Gauge, UK and European trains are typixally 7-wide, US trains typically 8-wide. --Tony

It's a combination of choosing very specific locomotives (of which there are no scale models) and most of the shows I attend being mostly HO and N gauge layouts. Typically I only ever find myself in the same room as the same O Gauge club, and they don't have too many of my locomotives. That said I do have one photo of one of my MOCs next to its O Gauge counterpart: texlug_11-13-10_50 by SavaTheAggie, on Flickr The only other scale model comparison I have is my Daylight next to a N Gauge model. Well, underneath the N Gauge model... NewBraunfels12_45 by SavaTheAggie, on Flickr I have, however, quite a few photos of my MOCs next to the 1:1 Scale models. ;) Railfest2010_21 by SavaTheAggie, on Flickr Railfest2010_07 by SavaTheAggie, on Flickr DayOutWithThomas11_001 by SavaTheAggie, on Flickr WBTSCompare_04 by SavaTheAggie, on Flickr Railfest2010_05 by SavaTheAggie, on Flickr (It's like a game of "Spot the MOC" :) --Tony

Fantastic photos of your always fantastic work. I am not as fortunate in finding O gauge examples of models I've built, so I have to say I'm a bit jealous. Very fun to see the pairs together. --Tony